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Episode 199 - The Ungrateful Left? (Patreon)

Published:
2022-08-08 10:27:18
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

The "inflation reduction" reconciliation bill has now passed. How should the left feel? Brie speaks to Matt Bruenig of the People's Policy Project about what the climate provisions really mean in the broader context of the fight against climate change, whether or not it actually addresses inflation, & why Joe Manchin finally got on board with a reconciliation bill after over a year of being pressured. Also, are they going to really end the student loan moratorium at the end of the month? And why are we experiencing historically low unemployment if high interest rates were supposed to depress business growth?

Next, an interview with Brent Welder -- lawyer and former congressional candidate in Kansas's 3rd district -- about the recent victory for abortion advocates in the state who defeated a ballot measure that would alter the state constitution to curb abortion rights.

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube to access our full video library. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Armand Aviram.

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands)

Comments

Anonymous

I'm with Brie - who are all these people with boatloads of cash saved, flooding the market? That sounds like a problem that Matt's other college-brain rich colleagues have. The David Sirota - Krystal Ball crowd are millionaires. This is all a game for them. I see people struggling where I live. Not walking around with cash falling out of their pockets - hunting for ways to spend it. What about rent increases? Food and gas increases? But Matt says people have TOO MUCH money? Maybe in his crowd.

Drew McGill

I like Matt but he’s so frickin’ naïve politically it’s maddening to listen to him.

Anonymous
>>89191828

That's what I was just thinking. He appears to think things aren't that bad. He thinks people have too much money, etc. Maybe Brie could have on Matt with someone from RBN or Richard Wolfe, someone - anyone - to challenge his weirdly rosy view.

Anonymous

Omi-fucki-god. Did Matt just say M4A would be BAD cuz people would have TOO much money in their pockets?!? What the fuck? I went from thinking Matt was just a little cloistered, to he is just another brainiac in the Liz Warren-PMC mode. Does Matt know anyone who has been bankrupted by medical bills? Maybe. But, he doesn't seem to think that's a problem. It's just a numbers game, and we haven't come up with The Right Plan yet. Wow.

Jonathan Kadmon

Matt is a macroeconomic baby brain. You literally just explained more to him than he knows and he didn't get it. Deficits don't cause inflation, but deficit reduction absolutely does cause recessions. There is nothing aggregate about government spending and people's savings do not cause inflation. Demand is fine where it is, leave it alone. Even if people spent all of their savings at once that would cause a couple of weeks of inflation and then it would correct. but people don't spend all their savings at once, that's stupid. Matt is buying into the neoclassical BS "if you give that poor person a dollar he's only going to spend it on booze" energy. That's obviously not what's happening here. YOU DONT NEED TO TAKE MONEY OUT OF PEOPLES POCKETS. If you do that they can't build wealth. It doesn't seem to have hurt every previous generation since WWII. The things driving inflation are essential goods with a demand floor. Food, gas, electricity, shelter, transportation. This isn't complicated. You can't curb demand for that stuff beyond a certain point.

Anonymous

Matt Bruenig has a very conventional analysis of the economy. As Richard Wolfe explains, even the "liberal" economists think through a filter that ignores reality for the large majority. He seems to think we're still a largely middle-class country with flush savings accounts. My guess is we'd learn more talking to a mom from rural Kansas or a warehouse worker from Boston or a farm worker from South Dakota about what's really going on in the US economy these days.

Jonathan Kadmon
>>89192327

Yeah he's a dummy. M4A would eliminate hundreds of thousands of (parasitical) jobs it would actually create DEflationary, recessionary pressures unless coupled with some other stimulus. Experience in other countries shows that once basic needs are met savings stays in bank accounts for lower and middle income families as they try to create stability and build wealth. They don't go out and spend it on big screen tvs. Like at this point I don't trust anything Bruenig says anymore.

Jonathan Kadmon

Also Brent Welder is good people more people should talk to him more often.

Jonathan Kadmon
>>89194239

Correct. But that "conventional" analysis is neoclassical and involves a lot of magical thinking. Even (or especially) the ones who call themselves "new keynesian" are neoclassical, using a bastardized version of keynes sanitized during the mccarthy era and subsequent cold war by Larry Summers's uncles. These are fundamentally right wing assumptions and extremely destructive. And yes, you're also correct that an ordinary person has a better idea what is going on in the economy. Basic common sense should tell most people what Bruenig says is stupid, when you drill down past the florid language.

Anonymous
>>89194239

Thanks Jonathan. Grateful to have you validate my gut level instinct with solid economic analysis and historical perspective.

C. Ries

“How do we solve the problem of working class people having too much money in their pockets?”

Anonymous

I have too much money in my pockets. I think I'll dispose of it on frivolous things like food (inflation has hiked the price), rent (been hiked due to gentrification/hyper-construction of luxury units), and utilities (hiked due to heat wave and fuel supply shenanigans).

Anonymous

Kelton comes up and “it’s a bit misleading”; “Their view”; “read a good bit of ‘their stuff’”; and others “from that sphere”. Neoclassical, indeed.

Jonathan Kadmon
>>89205988

He and doug henwood have flung so much poo at the MMT crowd they feel they have no choice but to double down no matter how many times they wind up with egg on their faces.

Anonymous
>>89192327

It would be great for small businesses that find healthcare costs really difficult to deal with. Not having that overhead would make for more and more secure jobs. It would also allow unions to focus on things other than healthcare benefits, like actually pay and conditions.

Anonymous
>>89194115

Bri had Fadhel Kaboub on in January talking about MMT. I feel she needs to let Fadhel and Matt fight it out. I am pretty sure Matt would learn a few things.

Tom

@Brie, you are right, it does matter who has the more money or where the shortage is in order for it to be inflationary. Matt is being really silly and unthinking when he credulously repeats that it's just about aggregates. Taxing people like Jeff Bezos' wealth is not going to bring down inflation of things people need to live in much of any significant way. It's going to bring down the prices of stocks (which might have a little deflationary effect), and it's going to bring down the prices of getting a university wing named after you, as well as prize houses and art, and it might bring down the supply or income of people working in non-profit consent manufacturing organizations or lobbyists who would otherwise be doing something else. Giving working people more money could increase the price of staples if there's a supply limit but to know if there is an actual supply limit depends on the market power of the suppliers. All things you knew and Matt sillily ignored. Nathan Tankus could be a great guest to dig more into this and build off what you already understand https://twitter.com/NathanTankus and continue the digging you've started with Kelton and Fadhel Kaboub.

Anonymous
>>89192327

It's almost like the whole Health Insurance scam is meant to keep workers tied to jobs they hate, so they don't get in the streets and protest? Wonder if Mr. Policy Brainiac ever thought of that little wrinkle.

Anonymous
>>89192327

I dont think that's exactly what he meant. I don't know which part of the conversation you're referring to, but I suspect it's when Bri asks if M4A would help with inflation. Matt says it wouldn't because, as we know, M4A would actually save people money. Inflation, though too complicated for my little brain, has something to do with too much money in the economy, so saving people still more money with M4A wouldn't help fight inflation. So, in that sense only, it would be bad. Of course, overall something like M4A would be good and is desperately needed. Just wouldn't help with inflation that's all.

Jack Aloysius
>>89327453

Hard agree. He seems pretty clueless on macroeconomics in general. And Nathan Tankus is very much the opposite.

Anonymous
>>89192327

I believe most people would choose M4A even with inflation. If you don't have to pay for healthcare, maybe you would be able to afford your new BlackRock landlord's rent hike. Most families were stretched thin PRIOR to Covid. Matt still seems a bit clueless to me.